Submissions to Molly Bloom
Molly Bloom appears online only, three times a year (January, May and September). Submissions of fine poetry are welcome at any time, by email only, to aidan@aidansemmens.co.uk
The first criterion for selection is simply the editor's sense of what fits, but bear in mind the good advice of Wallace Stevens that "poetry must resist the intelligence almost successfully".
Molly Bloom is not interested in light verse or 'confessional' poetry: if the first person pronoun occurs frequently in your writing it's probably more likely to find favour elsewhere. Similarly, while similes occasionally appear in these pages, they are not generally well favoured here. There are innumerable places where poetry riddled with simile is welcome; this is not among them. If this is mere prejudice, it's a long-ingrained one and unlikely to be changed by your verse, however nicely turned. No handy label defines what Molly will approve, but work which engages in a challenging way with political, scientific and/or environmental matters is likely to be more favourably received; writing which appears to engage with nothing but itself or its writer has no place here. As with any magazine, the best way to get a feeling for what might appeal to Molly Bloom is of course to read what already appears in it. Addressing an unsolicited submission to "Whom It May Concern" or "editors" will not automatically disqualify it but may make this editor (singular, and whose name is readily discoverable by anyone who actually reads the mag) less kindly disposed towards it from the start.
If you think your work might fit, please send no more than four poems, together with a brief biographical note, including details of any recent publications and any relevant web links. Please make sure your work is as you would like it to appear - don't assume that because this is an online rather than a print publication, you can go on tinkering after publication. Text may be sent in the body of an email, or as .doc, .docx or pdf files. Visual and/or audio work is not merely welcome but positively encouraged.
The first criterion for selection is simply the editor's sense of what fits, but bear in mind the good advice of Wallace Stevens that "poetry must resist the intelligence almost successfully".
Molly Bloom is not interested in light verse or 'confessional' poetry: if the first person pronoun occurs frequently in your writing it's probably more likely to find favour elsewhere. Similarly, while similes occasionally appear in these pages, they are not generally well favoured here. There are innumerable places where poetry riddled with simile is welcome; this is not among them. If this is mere prejudice, it's a long-ingrained one and unlikely to be changed by your verse, however nicely turned. No handy label defines what Molly will approve, but work which engages in a challenging way with political, scientific and/or environmental matters is likely to be more favourably received; writing which appears to engage with nothing but itself or its writer has no place here. As with any magazine, the best way to get a feeling for what might appeal to Molly Bloom is of course to read what already appears in it. Addressing an unsolicited submission to "Whom It May Concern" or "editors" will not automatically disqualify it but may make this editor (singular, and whose name is readily discoverable by anyone who actually reads the mag) less kindly disposed towards it from the start.
If you think your work might fit, please send no more than four poems, together with a brief biographical note, including details of any recent publications and any relevant web links. Please make sure your work is as you would like it to appear - don't assume that because this is an online rather than a print publication, you can go on tinkering after publication. Text may be sent in the body of an email, or as .doc, .docx or pdf files. Visual and/or audio work is not merely welcome but positively encouraged.
